The Shrine

That's hillarious. I used to be a big-time atheist, and that page reminded me 100% of those skeptics pages that I used to read.

That was a funny read =)

Manaman: On the topic of atheism, were you an atheist because that is what your true belief was, or was it just because you were fed up with religion in all of its manifestations?

Seeker: The answer is the latter.

I was raised by a conservative evangelical Christian mother... Her fanaticism combined with me seeing no real reason (besides fear of "hell") to be a Christian drove me away from Christianity. At the time I thought that you were either a christian or an atheist. It wasn't until recently that I found philosophy as a means to improve my (lacking) moral character. In philosophy I found conceptions of God that were far removed from the traditional, dare I say "small-minded", Christian concept of God. These philosophical views of God were much more realistic and more in line with how I'd always felt deep down. I've also found some purpose and meaning in life through studying philosophy. I've been atracted mainly to Greek/roman philosophy, particularly Stoicism.

Reminds me of some real-life skeptics like James Randi. I like to call those people Evangelical Skeptics or Skeptic Extremists, who aren't skeptic because of the name of science, but skeptic because it doesn't follow THEIR belief of what is possible.

The article was humorous, but I think it makes that point rather well. I mean if everything in Star Wars was actually true, and you saw all of this stuff that the Jedi did, the overwhelming evidence that something is going on out of the current realm of science, most people would consider that a basis for definate scienctific interest, and the evangelical skeptics would preach that it has to be bullshit, just because science hasn't investigated it yet.

SineSwiper wrote:Reminds me of some real-life skeptics like James Randi. I like to call those people Evangelical Skeptics or Skeptic Extremists, who aren't skeptic because of the name of science, but skeptic because it doesn't follow THEIR belief of what is possible.

The article was humorous, but I think it makes that point rather well. I mean if everything in Star Wars was actually true, and you saw all of this stuff that the Jedi did, the overwhelming evidence that something is going on out of the current realm of science, most people would consider that a basis for definate scienctific interest, and the evangelical skeptics would preach that it has to be bullshit, just because science hasn't investigated it yet.

That would all make sense as to why everyone considered the Force and the Jedi a joke only 20 years after they were all wiped out a la in ANH.

I guess by "evangelical skeptics" you'd also be referring to Penn and Teller. I've watched their show "Bullshit". I think the title describes the show acurately.

ManaMan wrote:I guess by "evangelical skeptics" you'd also be referring to Penn and Teller. I've watched their show "Bullshit". I think the title describes the show acurately.

To some extent, yeah. Sometimes they point out bullshit that shows the hypocricy of the subject (the PETA and War on Drugs episodes comes to mind), and sometimes they cherry-pick the evidence they need to prove their own point, without showing that they could be wrong.

To disprove that there is no such thing as a white crow, all you have to do is find one white crow. That puts the burden of proof on the skeptics, not the people that found the crow.

It's funny when Christians talk about how they love that show, and I retort with "Well, what did you think about the Bible episode?"

I love the Bible, only the old testament though, the new testament is rather boring. The only book that even strikes a bit of interest is Revelation and even that is about 1/25th as interesting as anything in the old testament. Then again, I also like ancient Greek and Roman legends. My favourite mythology is Norse/Germanic though, but old celtic ones are good too. The original Arthurian legends are much more fun than that stupid Christian Arthur/Guennivere love story and the romance surrounding Excalibur. That story is more famous for some reason, but in my opinion, less interesting than the other older French story about the other sword of power (Durandal).


Either way, I'll stop now as my post is WAAAAY off topic =P